OGB Appreciation Day: What I appreciate and what I would like to appreciate

It's time again for the OGB Appreciation Day #ThanksOGB (formerly known as #ThanksOTN and #ThanksODC) initiated by Tim Hall https://twitter.com/OracleBase

At first, what I appreciate from Oracle:

WOW, We have a new Fusion Middleware Release 12.2.1.4.0 :-) after nearly waiting for 2 years ! 

As my main focus is on WebLogic and Oracle Forms & Reports, I already had a closer look on this stuff and I must say, that specially for Oracle Forms & Reports, Oracle integrated some cool features/enhancements.

The browser-less solution for running Oracle Forms & Reports with the Forms Standalone Launcher is getting more and more mature, specially now with the ability to use SSO from Forms Standalone Launcher.

I really must admit that the Forms Standalone Launcher is the best improvement for Oracle Forms & Reports so far, as we can get rid of the Java Plugin dependencies within the Browsers.

On top with the latest Release 12.2.1.4.0 for Oracle Forms & Reports it's for me a clear commitment from Oracle for the future of Forms & Reports (here my special thanks goes to Michael Ferrante - Product Manager Forms & Reports https://twitter.com/OracleFormsPM )

The next thing, what I personally appreciate is the Always Free Cloud offering from Oracle.

It's really a great offering to give everybody for free and always 2 Oracle Databases (even when they are limited in terms of Memory and Space) and on top a Linux Server with 100 GB Storage with root privileges.

Now everybody can test and play from everywhere and every time (only an Internet Connection is required) with an Oracle environment. The cool thing is even, that you have a web-based SQL Developer and APEX.

As second, what I would like to appreciate from Oracle:

This is a long on going topic in the Oracle Community, the quality of the Oracle Support.

Over the past years the quality of the Oracle Support were decreasing from year to year up to an unbearable level. 

You have to fight with Support-Bots (while I am writing this blog post, I have opened in parallel a SR with Oracle Support and ooooooh miracle I'm discussing my support case with a Support-Bot ... ) , your open Bugs are not being processed and partially you get complete wrong answers on your questions or even you ask something and there is no reply for 2 weeks.

Dear Oracle Support, I can understand, that you don't want to fix a bug (which is not mission critical) for a Database Release which will be out of support within the next 9 months, but then PLEASE tell us, that you don't want to fix it and it will be fixed within the next upcoming release. In this case, I would know what to expect and not to let stay open my bugs and post only the famous mystery lines:

*** 11/19/18 10:03 am ***
*** 11/20/18 12:16 am ***
*** 11/29/18 12:00 am ***
*** 12/28/18 04:14 am ***
*** 12/28/18 04:14 am ***
*** 12/28/18 04:14 am ***
*** 01/31/19 12:34 am ***
*** 04/04/19 04:16 am ***
*** 07/29/19 08:12 am ***
*** 10/08/19 09:08 am ***

The next thing what I would like appreciate from Oracle is the version numbering concept for my beloved Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Currently we have for example Oracle WebLogic Server 12c (12.2.1.x) Releases, so far so good. The Oracle Database Releases are now following the version numbering concept with the years, for example Oracle Database 18c (2018), Oracle Database 19c (2019). So far so good, but who came to the brilliant idea to plan an Oracle WebLogic Release 14?

Long time ago we had the same confusion with the different version numbering concept between Oracle Database and Oracle Middleware Products (like iAS, OAS and so on, the older folks will still remember this products), with Oracle Middleware 12c we were aligned, but now with a future Release 14 we are back to the old confusion.

Dear Oracle, please align the version numbering concept ...